Imagining …..Love !

Imagining …. Love !

Over the course of the last few years, there has been surges of hate.. surges of violence. Surges of new labels to affix to people in order to put them into categories. Then once we have affixed a label to the idea, we can affix people to the label. Then, once we have assigned all the people to the labels, or they have assigned themselves to the label that we have created, or assigned others to, it then follows that the assignment of the label, corresponds to the feelings, and emotional outpouring that comes along with them.

We feel free to love or to hate or despise, or look down upon those others who have the label that is different from the label that someone else has affixed to us, or the label we have affixed to ourselves, according to our own particular hates, or likes.

There are those who become so emotionally invested in winning over the perceived evil in others, that they are most assuredly unable to see the evil that is beating in their own hearts, and in their minds. So repugnant are the ideas, that these things to be avoided at all costs, are the very things that slip past the labels, and become attached to the people, assigned to the people of an opposing view.

So invested have we become in trying to keep away from the ideas of the others, and away from THOSE people, that those people become the point of our frustration. We, while remaining invested in this process to win, are so much invested we may pass the point of reason. We need to win at all costs so that they will disappear, or go away, or just stay silent.

I remember as a young man still in Junior High school, there was another boy, that just seemed content to make my life miserable. In my mothers manner of attempting to get me to think through things, she said.. ” A man is known by the quality of his enemies…” it was designed to get me to think through the process and consider that if this other young man was so terrible, and loathsome, then surely he could not be worthy to be counted amongst my enemies.

Of course, I did not have time worry about such things I was in the middle of a rant and I did not have time to consider that boys qualities while I was busy considering the terror I wished to inflict on him for his constant pestering and bullying. At dinner that night, I was sitting there quietly stewing over the fact that my mother did not wish to see the hatred that was festering in my little heart and posed the one question that I heard often throughout my formative years.. ” What would happen if we gave a war and nobody came ?”.

By extension, we can see where we might fit in, if the only labels we claimed, were Children of God, and Global Citizens. If there were no countries… If there were no borders… If you just were a human being, sharing the planet, and a Child of God. If these other labels did not exist, then imagine what might be left for you to hate. Sure, these things exist, and yes, there are still others who are in charge of governments. We can still choose to live as though the labels of hate did not exist. We can choose love.

Instead of being a Conservative… they are another Child of God . Instead of being an immigrant or an ex-pat, they are children of God. Each person, each child of God has the basic human right to be treated with respect and dignity. They have the right to food, clothing and shelter; to health care and education. Mostly they have right to worship God freely, in what ever way they believe that will please God.

My father, when he would run across someone whose particular views either agreed or disagreed with his, he used to say ” What ever it is that you are…. Be the best of what ever that is that you can be ! ”
He would encourage them to ask the really hard questions, and seek the truth, to study and enter into dialog. In this way, they will find the face of God they seek.

Imagine …. Love !

May God give you the gift of His peace !

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This entry was posted on August 18, 2017 at 7:39 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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